North Haven

This post is a special one for my friend Bron at Big Brother, Little Sister & the Baby. While I am enjoying reading about her trip to Asia, you can take a peak into our NSW beach holiday. I love reading about how Bron manages her exotic family holidays with a wheelchair to negotiate. I can't offer you exotic but we do have fun with our camper trailer and sense of adventure.

Our first trip with our camper trailer was to North Haven. What a fantastic luck fluke that was. After being there for several days the man who ran the cafe at the Surf Club wanted to know were going to borrow the beach wheelchair....ahhh YES!!! We had no idea they had one and for some reason it didn't occur to anyone to mention it to the family with the kid in the wheelchair. 

We have stayed in both of the caravan parks in North Haven. The one pictured here is closest to the beach and had lovely big grassy sites. There is also a good disabled bathroom, but it was a long walk from our site. We always had to decide on the spot whether we would prefer the inconvenience of a long walk to the bathroom with Campbell or a crowded, dirty site- you never get it all but isn't that the fun of camping?

North Haven Beach.

This is another nice swimming spot for the kids in North Haven. It's probably good for fishing here too but our boys were not at all interested at this stage.

A short drive into Lake Cathie is worth it. The lake is perfect for swimming when the channel to the ocean is open and the koala reserve is pretty special too.

Here is the lake- nice and shallow for the kids.

This is the beach wheelchair you DON'T want to borrow. They have two at the surf club- this one which collapses and causes Campbell to knee himself in the face- and the other one! 

The second time we went back the good wheelchair had been loaned out to a local lady who was using it to explore other beaches in the area. That's a great situation for her but a huge let down for us. We would ring in advance next time so we can make sure we can enjoy the beach without bleeding noses.

Make sure you take a visit to Laurieton and Port Macquarie too- especially good when you get the inevitable rainy day. It always rains when we go to North Haven and we even got an exciting hail storm on our last visit.

In terms of good family and wheelchair friendly holidays this is at the top of our list.